I’ll admit I was impressed by Oklahoma’s decision to boot blue-chip WR Josh Jarboe after a rap video surfaced on YouTube of him talking about guns and shooting people. It was a bizarre set of circumstances that I think is emblematic of some changing times for college coaches these days thanks to the power of the Internet, both as a “marketing” tool and as a message spreader.
New problems are surfacing all the time and, when they do, EVERYBODY finds out about them. Not like 10 years ago, where maybe only the people around town got word. Public image is scrutinized much more and because of that I think you’ll see more programs trying to make sure the right message gets sent, both externally and internally.
Jarboe’s rap didn’t break any laws. It was, after all, just a freestyle rap. Then again, what he was talking about was a subject that already had him in hot water since Jarboe had made headlines in May for carrying a gun on school property where he grew up in Georgia. Does that make it different from Miami’s Seventh Floor Crew stuff or the Michigan rap that surfaced a few months later? I think it does.
espn.com
8/4/08
